It’s Krypto Fascists Versus Lyrics Again

Sometimes a song stays at the top of the charts so long it seems to become a permanent fixture. For such a long time Elsa’s signature song “Let it Go” from Frozen was the song that the alt-right loved to hate, whether it was this blog’s go-to rabid Vox Day or this blog’s go-to pseudo-intellectual Jordan “nope lobster” Peterson.

But finally, there appears to be a contender! From the hagiographic biopic musical of a historical racist and exploiter P.T.Barnum aka “The Greatest Showman”, the song “This is Me” has upset Vox Day with feelings.

The song can be seen here:

I should note that I don’t think much of the song or the film. The song is representative of the main approach to the music and the plot – start dejected/maudlin and then shift gradually to triumphalism. The body-positivity message is repeatedly overwhelmed with a Horatio Alger myth of hard work and believing in yourself etc etc. to overcome adversity. I didn’t feel stirred or moved by it but I’m a soulless monster who lives in a cave in a dark forest.

However, this same song seems to have hot Vox Day directly in whatever feels he has left (direct link, archive link)

“My first response to hearing the song and seeing the video was to feel the profound and programmed emotional stirring. My second response was to put that emotional effect in intellectual context, and think, kill it with fire. And my third response was to reflect upon how good these evil rhetoricians are, and realize how far we have to go in order to effectively counteract their influence on the mass culture.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling oddly defensive of the song. That defensiveness you are feeling is testimony to the power of the rhetoric. But review the lyrics and analyze the imagery. It is powerful cultural programming, but it loses its power and becomes transparent when viewed through coldly dialectic analytical eye. “Reaching for the sun” indeed…..”

Zoiks! His reaction appears to be genuine and I’m forced to reconsider whether a song that discombobulates the alt-right so effectively that it sends them into a struggle with their own emotions, can be all that bad.

Maybe because it has some elements which are positive but wrapped up in a message of centre-right of self-esteem it hits a nerve. This is not unlike “Let It Go” where the self-affirmation by Elsa is nearly-but-not-quite the same ideology/pseudo-psychology of Peterson, that they find it more viscerally unsettling because it is a woman who is affirming her individualist independence from society.

Anyway…Vox then heads off into more alarming rhetoric of his own:

“Just remember that we’re the ones with the guns. We’re the side with no reason for shame. We are servants of the King and the defenders of the West. They know they are guilty, they know they are damned, and they are openly flaunting their sin. They are warriors and they are at war with our God, our civilization, our faith, and our nation.”

The takes a detour into anti-semitism and homophobia and then declares:

“Their satanic hymns will not save them from the justice of the Almighty God in the end.”

As you know, I’m not religious but I enjoy theology. If I was religious I really would have to wonder what god it is that Vox Day worships. There was an earlier piece a few days ago where Vox said something unintentionally revealing and disturbing once you pause and think about his position on many issues: (direct link, archive link)

“Here is a reliable heuristic for evil: does it justify, rationalize, excuse, defend, encourage, advocate, or require sex with children in any way, openly or covertly, directly or indirectly? Then it is evil, topped by an evil sauce, with a side of evil.”

Does that strike anybody else as deeply unself-aware of things he has actually said?

Vox Day has repeatedly cast doubt on the claims of victims of sexual assault and abuse. For example this comment from is pickup-artistry site in 2013:

“Sexual abuse is a problem. But as is often the case, the overreaction to it has created problems of its own, as children have become aware that they can create massive problems for adults by falsely accusing them. Perhaps the awareness that they run the risk of bankruptcy if they don’t control their progeny will convince parents that their little angels may, in fact, be little devils in disguise.”

He has repeatedly opposed Codes of Conducts generically for example saying:

“This is just straight up thought, speech, and behavioral policing, and it explicitly goes in one direction, the direction that provides the SJWs with political control of the organization.”

…about a code that sought to prevent:

Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop. Threats of violence, both physical and psychological. Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm. Deliberate intimidation. Stalking or following. Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes. Unwelcome sexual attention, including gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour. Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.

Even his much vaunted campaigns against pedophiles is something he primarily uses to attack critics, push homphobia or demonise immigrants. The conspiracy theories he promulgates (and which his vandalised version of Wikipedia promotes) serves to hide the danger and prevelance of sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

I don’t know. It’s probably just routine malice mixed with incompotence and confusion about his own semiotics. Maybe it is just his tendency to mix his own messages (like attempting to ironically surrounded himself with pseudo-satanic imagery while styling himself as an evangelical Christian) but given the whole of the picture, I keep returning to the question: if Vox thinks gods are real what kind of god is it that he worships and would deem itself happy with his efforts?

“The Disney paypigs who continue subjecting their children to satanically inspired princess movies no doubt blissfully hum this song to themselves as they wait in the drive-thru at Starbucks. But among the disaffected engineer types who, while smarter, tend to make a vice of excess pragmatism, the equal and opposite problem emerged.”

70 thoughts on “It’s Krypto Fascists Versus Lyrics Again”

I see he said “and analyze the imagery”. I think it’s as much about *who* gets to have an affirming and uplifting song – it being sung by so-called “freaks” inc a “bearded lady” must have hit him right in his ugly stereotyping brain.

VD, Peterson, even JCWs attacks on popular TV shows – there’s definitely a pattern. And attempts to police culture are definitely a feature of radical and totalitarian political movements.
Just thinking aloud, what happens if you look at the alt-right as a *cultural* movement for who any gains from their forays into real politics are to be recycled back into the cultural conflict? e.g. anyone who edges towards political respectability always crashes out because they spend any platform they gain to promote their culture-warring base. (Milo obviously springs to mind here)

Remember, American evangelicals are solidly behind Pres. Void Crab, who bragged about walking in on scantily clad girls when he ran the Miss Teen USA pageant. He brags about grabbing women. They also thought Judge Roy Moore was a fine upstanding Christian even though he was hitting on teenage girls so regularly that he was banned from his local mall. And they count as ones of their own the “Duck Dynasty” and Duggar families, who respectively believe girls should be married at 14-15 and it’s NBD if one of the boys molests his own pre-pubescent sisters.

So pedophilia is just fine with many evangelicals as long as it isn’t their kid, and sometimes even then.

I’m beginning to think the people who really need the guns FOR SELF DEFENSE are girls under 18.

That defensiveness you are feeling is testimony to the power of the rhetoric. But review the lyrics and analyze the imagery. It is powerful cultural programming, but it loses its power and becomes transparent when viewed through coldly dialectic analytical eye. “Reaching for the sun” indeed…..”

It’s ironic that much the same may be said about the hateful spew Beale and his ilk spread forth yet he doesn’t seem to allow himself to notice.

And then there’s:This is just straight up thought, speech, and behavioral policing, and it explicitly goes in one direction, the direction that provides the SJWs with political control of the organization.

Funny, though. I can replace one little thing:This is just straight up thought, speech, and behavioral policing, and it explicitly goes in one direction, the direction that provides the Alt-right with political control of the organization.

And once again, it’s directly applicable to Mr Beale’s daily drivel and he still won’t allow himself to notice.

I haven’t seen the film and only heard the song, when it was performed at the Oscars. I quite liked it for what it was, an uplifting anthem celebrating diversity. And besides, you don’t watch the Oscars for music that’s actually good.

I agree with you that VD’s problem with this song and the Frozen song (which I don’t like at all) is that uplifting message to be true to yourself and do your own thing is directed not at straight white men (or not only at straight white men, for what is Hugh Jackman, if not a straight white man?), but at women, POC, LGBT people, disabled people and in the movie literally circus freaks. And according to Vox, he and his can do whatever they please. Everybody else should do what Vox wants them to do.

Regarding Brian Niemeier, that garble garble is typical of what I see whenever I feel masochistic and check out his and other puppy blogs. He is apparently singlehandedly trying to boycott Disney a.k.a. the root of all evil and all pop culture he disapproved of and calls for everybody else to do the same. He also fantasizes about taking back the culture and reinstating the Inquisition or something. I’m beginning to worry about him.

Though the comment thread at that Niemeier post is fascinating, whether it’s Niemeier and others claiming the reason people aren’t reading their books is because they are too complex or a comment that hints at a further rift among the various puppy fractions.

I wrote a comedy crime novel set in the Edwardian period, which has multiple crime-plots going on at the same time, witty put-downs and slapstick going on inside a farcical story, with a lot of period details being important to the story and (more importantly) the jokes, so they get expanded upon. I thought I’d written a lot of (background, set-up, pay-off) type things, quite a bit to keep a handle on, but a fast paced, light crime story. Some friends reading it wonder how I manage to make sense of such a twisty-turny plot, and how they were just about able to keep up with the very c.1902 jokes. It wasn’t too complex, but it was more complex than it seemed to the guy who wrote it and then read it and re-wrote it four times.

So… without reading his books I believe Niemeir and also don’t think that’s the reason people aren’t reading his books (my crime-reading buddies inhaled mine like it was nothing, interrupted by the occasional belch of laughter)

There’s rather a lot going on in ASoIaF but the average punter seems to be able to keep track of all ten thousand characters, where they are, what conspiracy they’re in, and what they’re eating. To name just one example out of many in the SFF field. Or, say “The Dark Tower” with all the alternate parallel worlds.

“This Is Me” has been taken up as an anthem of sorts by LGBTQ folk, so I would assume it’s on the list of things for the religious extremist right wing division to swear vengeance upon. Probably Beale is trying to jump in because others in the right o’sphere were going for it. The song’s been out for awhile and the Oscars were back a couple months ago, so that’s kind of a late take.

“Just remember that we’re the ones with the guns.”

Yeah, that’s pretty much the entire sum of all the bigotry arguments — might makes right. Drive a van into a crowd; spray a place with an AR-15, beat a gay guy with a chain, etc.

Oh, believe me, I never, ever forget that you fucking psycho whackjobs are the ones with the guns, and I make efforts to try to protect myself from your whackjobery wherever I go — up to, and including, trying to keep you from bringing your guns along when you come into places where I’m going to be. 🙄

They have SOME of the guns. Remember, these idiots ain’t what they think they are.

I mean–that’s what makes Beale’s little screed about being a “servant of the King” and a “defender of the West” so fucking amusing. Beale’s take on Christianity isn’t just stupid, it’s actually heretical, to the point that in those long ago past days he dreams about, he’d be taking a quick trip to a bonfire. He’s got NonTrinitarianism mixed up with a down-right gnostic misinterpretation of Augustine’s fallen world, and that’s before the cod Nietzscheanism gets thrown into the mix. He sneers at 9-10ths of the Western culture he claims to be the champion of, and gets the one tenth he likes wrong. And yet there he and is sad little cargo cult are, Saying the Words, and thus proving they are the Real True Men.

You know I find it’s usually a bad sign when a person defines down evil to the narrowest baseline of acceptable behavior imaginable. Not only because it is almost always an effort to make all sorts of horrible things allowable (usually with the right sort of excuse, of course), but because that person will, nine times out of ten, fail their newly minted “Good Behavior for Dummies” guidelines…

Now that he’s saved game controllers, genre awards, online encyclopedias and comics, I think it is only natural the dark lord applies his magic touch to saving the All-American musical production.

VD could base (copy) it from Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilsuccess. I imagine an original title like ARISTOTLE. Maybe choreography and lyrics based on (stolen from) Bob Fosse: “Life is a katholou, old friend. Come to the katholou”.

Should they still be called crypto-fascists at this point, or can the prefix be dropped?

And why are they suddenly worried about musical theater? It’s been the gayest of all art forms since… forever. Jazz hands, chorus boys, the performers and writers… it’s a gay old time. Sure, sometimes they let the straight boys like Lin-Manuel or Richard Rogers in, but it’s probably at least as queer than men’s figure skating, and much more open about it.

(Speaking as someone who’s done musicals on ice. Picture the sequins. Now turn it up to “Elton John thinks it’s a little too much”.)

I’ve been biting my tongue for a while, but this is what I think of when I see “Krypto Fascist” anywhere (though there’s a better image elsewhere in the SCPA story I have in one of my boxes). Now my tongue can begin to heal.

(Speaking as someone who’s done musicals on ice. Picture the sequins. Now turn it up to “Elton John thinks it’s a little too much”.)

Have you seen ‘Strawberry Ice’ by Toller Cranston, by any chance? Take a champion male figure skater (known more for his artistry and dancing work rather than his technical work) as well as painter, and then give him complete creative control of an hour-long TV special. I think it would qualify. The whole 50-minute thing is on Youtube.

(Cranston was one of those skaters that defined some of the style of the 1970s, and was always more interested in theatre aspects than actual competitive skating. Part of why he never got past 3rd at the international level despite being able to do things like a Russian split with his feet up to shoulder level.)

Have I seen it? Honey, I once skated way down in the kid section on a bill Toller headlined! I’ve got his autograph on that program! Lovely man, so kind.

It’s great they got rid of those stupid figures. That was the only way the Eastern bloc won back in those days, piling up points in the technical stuff you could learn through hours of dull repetition in dank cold places.

@Lurkertype:
Neat, and sounds like it was fun. Never got to personally meet him myself, though I was a kid as well when he was at his peak. I do remember seeing Strawberry Ice on TV back when it was first broadcast.

Needless to say, when I and a group of other mostly Canadian friends of around the same age ended up watching the anime ‘Yuri On Ice’, there were a number of Toller Cranston comparisons. Especially considering that the main character is also someone who tended to low-ball the technical aspects and make up for it on the free skate and artistry.

(I also still remember an in-passing Wayne and Shuster joke while they were doing a ‘walk through the prop room’… I think it was Wayne that picked up a pair of children’s skates and made a joke about ‘the world’s smallest figure skater: Shorter Cranston’.)

They are obsessing about pop culture and music that makes headway because it means that LGBTQ civil rights are making headway, and civil rights are anathema to the authoritarianism and romanticized types of feudalism they all desire, particularly for the theocrats anything with sexuality and gender. Any sign that equality is gaining, particularly in popularly consumed culture, is erosion and loss of market share for them, since they build their money and dynasties on presenting equal rights as simultaneously already existing so no need to worry and a threat that will destroy proper civilization.

Fascism in Europe is regaining a hold in various spots with an emphasis on kill the Jews and Roma once again, the gays once again, and the black and brown people. But oddly, it is deeply tied into the old Soviet Union apparatus and connected to former players of such, particularly in Eastern Europe, (as well as factions of Islam in Turkey,) which was all in operation only thirty years ago. So essentially, the various types of fascists are employing fascist communism to take over power and selling themselves to Russian oil oligarchs while decrying communism. What Putin did in Russia, they’re trying to do in Poland, Hungary, Turkey, France, Portugal, Britain (Brexit), etc. For the theocrats, it’s nice because it involves those groups allying with far right religious sects and branches, but unfortunately for the theocrats, that only gets the religious sects money and lip service in using them for suppression tactics. And then there’s the problem they have that religions, including Catholic sects and other sects of Christianity, are quite dependent on black and brown people all over the world to keep them going and provide them with wealth.

Europe has never in entire recorded human history been united under one religion and it’s not going to be now, with a largely secular younger generation, even if you put them to the sword. And it’s certainly not going to be Catholicism that comes out on top, wiley though they are. It will just be factionalized, just like in the Middle East. The dream is no different than ISIL’s caliphate and just as unrealistic. But apparently it’s persuasive enough that they take potshots at musical numbers — just as they used to warn about the evils of musical numbers back in the late 1800’s and early 20th century.

The fascists everywhere start out shouting about muslims, terrorism and refugees, but pretty quickly they start going after Jews, the press, academics and cultural institutions. In East Germany, universities and theatres are already under siege from the local brand of fascists. And just a few days ago, a member of the far right party AfD wanted to shut down the world famous club “Berghain” in Berlin, a major tourist magnet, because people were doing drugs there and having sex (well, duh, it’s a club) and disturbing the neighbours, you know the good normal people, and besides, those frequenting the Berghain should please adhere to “normal” sleep and wake cycles. Now I don’t particularly care about the fate of the Berghain club, but this should be a wake up call for all those who believe that the far right are only coming for the refugees (which is awful enough in itself).

This is also why I’m scared of the rise of the far right, because I know that I’m the sort of person (female, leftwing, academic, globalist, writer, works with refugees) who will become a target sooner or later. And people telling me, “Why should they come after you? No one knows who you are.” doesn’t help at all.

Yep — East Germany — Soviet apparat left over. East Germany came in at economic disadvantage after the fall of the Soviets and a formerly totalitarian government, and a lot of those folk are still about. So those folks know the drill — promise them jobs, stability, security and most of all social status in return for control. They blame refugees, academics and traditional targets as excuses to say let’s take the “snobby” West Germans’ stuff and we, the righteous, will be in power and keep off the foreigners raping your women and children, while at the same time trying to gut social programs and funding that were actually helping the East Germans. They can mix the old language of nationalistic restore the glory fascism, communist totalitarian nationalism and for those who want to or find it profitable, fundamental theocracy.

It’s holding those coalitions together that are trickier. UKIP in Britain pulled off the incredibly bigoted Brexit — and then fell apart after its triumph. But many of its people will still be in there causing damage in new factions that both ally and conflict. But it is interesting that it’s the communist totalitarian apparatus that is being put to work in the name of “Western” civilization and how many connections to Putin’s government a lot of these folks have. The far right and parts of the far left in Europe are essentially allied with Russia to work on Russia’s plan of breaking up or at least de-stabilizing the EU. And one of the best ways to do that is to go after the immigrants, even though immigrants always help economies. But they change social status and make people more equal, less feudal, which means a loss of perceived status for many. So they always get made the “enemies of the state.” Russia has been very good at exploiting that in its own borders and in other countries.

The AfD definitely has connections to Putin’s Russia, ditto for the Left Party (some parts of which have also decided to chase the racist vote). Besides, Germany also has a large Russian minority (approx. 4 million), mostly the descendants of Germans who emigrated to Russia in the 18th century who came to Germany in the 1990s and were given German passports with very few controls. Many of these Russian Germans are well integrated by now, but many are not and they’re very susceptible to Putin’s propaganda. Russian Germans tend to vote conservative politically and the AfD is actively courting them.

It’s also very ironic that the very people who were welcomed into (West) Germany with open arms, whether Russian Germans or East Germans, now turn vehemently on other immigrants in need. When you point this out to them, they’ll tell that their case was different because they were German. What is more, the vast majority of those who left East Germany before 1989 (via applying to leave or via escape or via prisoner buyouts) were not actually politically prosecuted, but left for economic reasons. Which makes it doubly ironic that they now accuse refugees of coming only for economic reasons and not because of war and persecution.

OMG, Cora, you’re globalist? You don’t look globalist! Well, it doesn’t really matter. Some of my best friends are globalist. Truly, I have nothing against globalists per se. It’s just….they’re different, you know?

Yeah, after the fall of the S.U., Russia found itself boxed in between Europe and the western alliance and a wary China, with the leftovers from the Soviet regime like Putin running the show. The only leverage they really had was the oil and the threats of invading other countries. The oil balancing act is fading, especially with sanctions, and invasions are costly if sometimes useful. So they’ve been working during the near thirty years of western peace pacts to destabilize North America and Europe, break up NATO and trade agreements, and try to put Russia in a better position with then ascendant China.

And the easiest way to do that was to take the path of the Nazis to start WWII — utilize both right wingers and leftist (white) worker revolt types sympathetic towards Russia for campaigns declaring former glory must be restored (superior nobility) of each country against the threats of hordes of foreign (black and brown) peasants and that this will magically solve all the problems (actually created by the global wealthy looting the countries plus a lot of fabricated claims like the brown immigrants raping the white women.) And this will then magically create a white empire/European caliphate/theocracy (for each country standing on its own, mind you,) that can go to war with a tiny segment of Muslims in the Middle East which will supposedly save western civilization and put women back in chains in their proper place as breeding cattle. Unlike say civil, cooperative behavior that actually works and grows economies. And after throwing some largesse occasionally at the rural white poor in countries (you don’t even have to bother with that in the U.S.,) these right-wingers then just go on a looting spree if they get into bigger power and blame that further on the Other.

It doesn’t even matter for Putin if they succeed or not. All Russia needs is for them to be sowing chaos so that the “west” — which does not include Russia — will collapse in its partnerships, with the right-wing promise that glory and security will then arise from the collapse (or for some, the glory of the Rapture.) Trade and migration are what makes everything grow and can lead to equality which also makes things grow, but it’s always scary for many people who fear they’ll lose control of the resources and most importantly status. And it’s always easier to beat up on the people who have nothing, like the refugees, and claim they are the problem, then tackle powerful, global wealth-mongers who promise them droppings if they support what they want. And then they never have to deliver on that as long as they pay lip service to the social status hierarchy. Brexit is and will damage the British economy for decades, but it lets white Britons feel that they are superior (nobles,) and justly ruling their turf, which is apparently worth more than their children’s actual futures. And same over here with Trumpettes.

To my eternal regret, I dipped into the comments over there on VD’s site. My favorite might be “Tu/bel/cane” who claims that Hamilton did not “penetrate mass culture.”

I quit reading when I hit St/eve, who says, “Sort of reminds me of all the freaks and perverts cavorting around in Cabaret before the normal Germans got tired of their shit and then we got the happy ending.”

Given he was supposed to be the first smith, what do you want to bet that whoever chose that name was an engineer who thinks he’s clever? (Granted, ‘thinks he’s clever’ probably describes Vox and most of his hangers-on.) And biblical references are common enough in that crowd. That’s just… a somewhat obscure reference. I know I would never have heard of him if it weren’t for a few references from Slacktivist.

As for Hamilton, it did so totally not penetrate mass culture that every second US TV show has been making jokes about how difficult it is to procure Hamilton tickets these past two years. Which mightily tends to confuse German viewers not plugged into US pop culture, especially since Hamilton is not really the sort of musical that translates well, unlike the latest Disney whatever.

Yes, and there are no Hamilton parodies done on every other TV show, and absolutely nobody on Twitter ever talks about it.

I remember hearing that some FOAF was suddenly going to NYC in an insalubrious weather month, for a strange number of days and wondered why. The answer was “Hamilton tickets” and instantly everyone in the group agreed that the itinerary was quite sensible. Even those who don’t care about Broadway, musicals, hip-hop, history.

The day I take seriously VD on morality or values, the same man who celebrated Anders Breivik the child murderer, is the day you all need to hunt me down because I’ve obviously been replaced by my evil twin. And just remember, VD thinks that venerating a child killer is no cause for shame. I think this needs to be brought up basically every time he gets mentioned in a conversation.

Vox is obsessive about pedophilia. He’s always projecting it onto situations where it simply doesn’t exist. And it is entirely possible to be evil without having any pedophilic tendencies.

Funny enough, I was digging through my boxes of unread books recently, came across “Tain” by Gregory Frost. It’s basically a swords’n’sorcery style retelling of the Cu Chulainn myths of Ireland. Not bad at all, and some spot checking indicates it’s extremely accurate to the source material. One thing I noticed: Cu Chulainn picks out the love of his life when she’s 12 years old – he may have been 2-3 years older at the time, although already a superheroic figure.

Vox, of course, would therefore denounce this as evil – one of the founding mythic cycles of the Western civilization he claims to defend, a myth specifically chosen for preservation by the Christian monks of Ireland, with echoes in everything from Persia’s Rostum to Greece’s Hercules to Kal-El of Krypton. All the cultures preceding ours, including the medieval Christian one, practiced marriage of girls at ages that now qualify as pedophilia. But you can see very clearly from how he discusses the topic, nuance is not allowed. If she’s under 18, Vox will proclaim the man to be a hellfire-damned pedophile, no exceptions, no details allowed.

I did a bit of math on the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal. The numbers I came up with were that, if you were a Catholic kid in North America, your odds of being the victim of one of the pedophile priests were in the same order of magnitude as getting hit in the head by a meteorite. And that is in a case where an organization was taking actions that would actively select FOR and increase the concentration of pedophiles. The prevalence in regular life will therefore be significantly lower – which is why most people don’t see pedophiles lurking under every rock; because nothing in their life experience leads them to expect such a thing.

Vox, however, DOES see them under every rock.

It’s enough to make one think he’s trying to compensate for something in his personal experience, where he simply doesn’t realize how skewed his perspective is – regardless of the reason for the skew.

The pedophilia fixation is not just VD’s thing, though, it’s a common pattern among the far right that they are obsessed with pedophiles, whom they see everywhere, and that they always try to paint their enemies as pedophiles or at least pedophile enablers. We’re seeing the same mechanism here in Germany, where the far right AfD calls the Green Party pedophiles and pedophile enablers because of some badly formulated party programmes from the 1970s. “Pedophile” is their one go-to insult. And ironically, they don’t particularly care about pedophilia in the Catholic church (where the incidence may be higher than normal, but not nearly as high as some of the panicky reports claim), because they equate the Catholic church with Western civilisation. And if they do acknowledges pedophilia in the Catholic church, it’s all the fault of liberal priests/bishops/the Vatican II concile/the current Pope.

I think you need to rerun those numbers, given that the total number of Americans known to have been hit in the head by meteorites is zero. (There’s one record of an American woman hit in the thigh by a meteorite.) I have no figures handy on how many American Catholic children were sexually abused by priests, but it’s not fewer than ten, which is what “the same order of magnitude” gives you.

Hey, here’s a question — is Beale just okay with JDA trying to hijack his feud/claim of supposed obsession from Scalzi? Has Beale moved on to greener pastures, leaving JDA to perform a bad copy of performance art and try to establish his bonafides?

Apparently so – but if JDA over steps then VD will lash out. He’s lashing out at Jordan Peterson at the moment in an argument that…well, its layers upon layers of wrong. Peterson is trying to be deniably racist and non-antisemtic and Vox isn’t and they are arguing about IQ…and of course Peterson is an IQ essentialist (hence actually racist but thinks he isn’t) so inevitably he’s going to lose an argument to somebody who isn’t trying to pretend not to be racist. It’s not edifying.

That ought to read (hence actually racist but says he isn’t). Deep in his heart of hearts Peterson knows how racist he is. He just can’t let himself admit it out loud or else he’ll lose his cushy job because of those horrible ‘Leftists’ in charge of his University.

Yeah – looks like a rookie error. Good for Vox’s cv but bad for his. It rather like when Louise Mensch was ‘debating’ Vox – a way of trying to create a distinction to their right as proof that are somehow reasonable & moderate.

They say they aren’t, but they know full well they’re lying just so decent/confused/naive people might get tricked into listening to them. Gotta pull in new rubes to get wingnut welfare from, after all.

Beale has a tendency towards bizarre feuds with his fellows, like when started calling vile RW columnist Kurt Schlichter a “cuckservative” because Schlichter was whispering his threats instead of shouting them, more or less.

Here’s a thing – someone has just sat down opposite to me on the train and unlimbered a copy of Peterson’s book. He appears to be reading it unironically!
I’m resisting the urge to lean over and ask him about lobsters.